John Howard

John Howard (26 July 1939-) was Prime Minister of Australia from 11 March 1996 to 3 December 2007, succeeding Paul Keating and preceding Kevin Rudd. He was a member of the Liberal Party of Australia.

Biography
John Howard was born in Earlwood, New South Wales, Australia in 1939, and he studied law at the University of Sydney and became a solicitor at the supreme court of the state of New South Wales in 1963. In 1974, he became a member of the House of Representatives for the Liberal Party of Australia, and, hollowing the fall of Gough Whitlam's government, under Malcolm Fraser he became Minister for Business and Consumer Affairs (1975-7) and then Treasurer (1977-83). In opposition again from 1983, he was deputy leader (1983-5), then leader of the opposition (1985-9), though with his solid but uninspiring personality he was unable to pose a threat to the popular Bob Hawke. He got another chance to lead the opposition in 1995. This time, despite being personally much less popular than the fiery Paul Keating, his image of seriousness and reliability at a time of economic crisis was successful in the elections of 2 March 1996, from which his Liberal/National Coalition emerged with a forty-seat majority. As Prime Minister, he promised to cool down, but not abandon, the heated discussions about the abolition of the monarchy (personally being a monarchist). He took steps to liberalize Australia's labor market, thereby inviting confrontation with the country's strong trade unions, and to promote personal insurance to reduce public spending and relieve the national debt.